James Hinchcliffe inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame

James Hinchcliffe (Chuck Carroll, Wikimedia Commons)

According to Twitter on Wednesday, James Hinchcliffe of North York, Ontario was inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame. He was honoured for winning the 2010 Indy Lights race and the 2017 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach races. The 2017 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is one of six IndyCar races Hinchcliffe won in his career. He also won in St. Petersburg, Florida, Iowa and Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2013, in New Orleans in 2015, and in Iowa again in 2018.

Hinchcliffe’s 2010 Indy Lights race victory was one of three Indy Lights wins he had with Team Moore racing. The others were in Chicago and Edmonton.

Hinchcliffe is the second Canadian to be inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame. The other was Paul Tracy of Scarborough, Ontario in 2013. Tracy won four Grand Prix of Long Beach races. They came in 1993, 2000, 2003 and 2004. Tracy in fact has the second most Grand Prix of Long Beach titles. Al Unser Jr. of Albuquerque, New Mexico has the most with six.

Only one other Canadian has won the Grand Prix of Long Beach. That was Gilles Villeneuve of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec in 1979, when the race was part of Formula One.

Hinchcliffe was one of two race car drivers to be inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame in 2023. The other was Ryan Hunter-Reay of Dallas, Texas, who won in 2010.

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